Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas is having a superb season and is in with a chance of winning the F1 title.

Bottas replaced Nico Rosberg at Mercedes in the off-season and few in the sport gave him much hope of being anything other than back-up to three-time champion Hamilton.

However, after nine Grands Prix, the Finnish driver is third in the standings with 136 points to his name.

He trails his colleague by just 15 points, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel top of the tree on 171 points as the Formula One roadshow moves into Silverstone for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Bottas has, for some people, punched above his weight, but Hamilton does not see it that way.

"Valtteri did a fantastic job, so he thoroughly deserved to win," Hamilton said of Bottas' Austrian GP performance. "When you look at the results, he's also had a DNF as well. He's generally had a better season I would say so far.

"There was never a point that he was never in the fight. I think it was only you guys who potentially suggested that he was never in the battle. I always assumed he still was, and that just shows he still is."